With the development of the 4th INOTEC™ generation for light metal casting and the new TC 4000 and WJ 4000 product lines, research in the area of inorganic binder systems has reached its current high. As a result, ASK Chemicals is able to increase the efficiency of its inorganic binder technology and to achieve significant procedural advantages as compared to other methods or older generations of binders.

Odorless core production, odor-reduced casting, significantly less cleaning of machines and tools and the resulting higher output quantity and productivity, as well as the advantages in terms of casting, such as faster solidification enabled by lowering ingot mold temperatures – these advantages of the INOTEC™ technology are already well-known. The use of the 4th generation of binders now introduces major benefits to complement them.

With the newly developed INOTEC™ Promoter TC 4000, even areas that are highly susceptible to penetration, such as the gate region, can be achieved in a process-consistent manner and without additional coating of the cores. This system is 100 % inorganic and leaves no condensate deposits in the casting tools at all. In addition, there is no formation of smoke during the casting process.Cast pieces that were produced using conventional methods, such as the Cold-Box method, exhibited a significantly inferior surface in comparison, which means that INOTEC™ is much more than just an alternative here (Figure 1).

In the past, decoring of cast pieces that were produced using inorganic binders, was often quite a challenge in the area of water jackets, especially if the decoring machine has only a few degrees of freedom. The INOTEC™ Promoter WJ 4000 has helped to significantly improve shake-out properties in particular, so that even complex and filigree water jacket cores can now be removed again safely from the component after casting (Figure 2).

With the latest generation of INOTEC™ binders, the ASK Chemicals research team has thus succeeded in expanding the process and application window for inorganics and, what is more, in developing a product that provides excellent surface quality.